Sunday Reading

New Delhi, 10 February 2010

Of Chastity & Hymenoplasty

ARE OLD VALUES CHANGING?

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

The five-year-old statement of Tamil film actress Kushboo on pre-marital sex and virginity after making the rounds in lower courts and the Madras High Court has now reached the Supreme Court of India. The actress made an appeal this January to the apex court, challenging the defamation complaints filed against her in various places in Tamil Nadu on grounds that there was no whisper of obscenity in her statement.

The three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G Balakrishnan observed: “it is a wide statement, slightly difficult to digest.” The CJI called for production of the full transcript of the actress’s statement for considering this case and posted it for future hearing.

The aging siren of Tamil cinema found herself in the eye of the storm way back in 2005 for her opinions favoring pre-marital sex. In an interview to a magazine, she had said:  “Our society should liberate itself from such ideas that brides should all be virgins at the time of marriage. No educated man will expect his bride to be virgin at the time of marriage. But when indulging in pre-marital sex, the girl should guard herself against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.”

This statement stirred a hornet’s nest in the southern State. As many as 23 defamation complaints were filed against the actress and the Madras High Court ordered them to be bunched together for its speedy trial. The actress challenged this in the Supreme Court.   

Notwithstanding the apex court’s judgment on the issue, the fact remains that Kushboo’s statement focuses on a few societal issues, particularly those related to gender and certain developments that are taking place bringing out the hard realities of the Indian society.

There is no denying the fact that under the onslaught of the new forms of media, and sweeping societal and life style changes, the psychological distance between childhood and adulthood is shrinking in our country.

Many youngsters at an unbelievable age are indulging into sexual experimentation and playing out the adult fantasies in grown up ways. This could be illustrated by pointing out a news report that emanated from one of India’s prosperous but relatively conservative State, Gujarat. A news item shockingly revealed that many young girls are queuing up before the clandestine medical clinics for hymenoplasty, the surgical procedure that restores their virtue intact in the eyes of their future husbands.

The trend for the restoration of woman's hymen, technical virginity had started some eight years back in Gujarat, but is now fast catching up in other parts of the country. Just like sex determination clinics that operate secretly, the clinics doing hymenoplasty are also secretly mushrooming in big cities. The price for the restoration of the hymen is about Rs.20, 000 ($500) and doctors describe the surgery as ‘simple and not too painful’ that is further made comfortable in the ambience of corporate clinics.

Chastity is a cherished value in the Indian society and girls turn up to such clinics with the sole intention of keeping their future husbands happy that they are virgins. The plastic surgeons, who are reportedly making a killing out of this thought-out fancy, say there were only few such cases earlier. Earlier, mostly those who used to come were inquisitive youngsters wanting to know the details of such surgery but never volunteered for the same. The trend has changed now. Of late hymenoplasty surgeries are on the rise.

Importantly, it appears that the new age woman is warming up with the idea of an arranged marriage, but not before she has had her fill of fun and flings. The case history of hymenoplasty ranges from those who want to get married but did not want their husband to know they had indulged in pre-marital sex. Others may even want their husbands to inform his parents that their daughter-in-law is a virgin.

Interestingly, it is not just young women in India who are going for such procedures but Indian girls settled abroad too. Apparently, they are longing for it because the Indian value system remains intact in their households. Moreover, compared to the western countries, such surgeries are cheap in India. And, many plastic surgeons are cashing on this trend.

However, there are some alarming signals coming out of this fascination. It looks as if this is going the sex selection way, where the doctors only flourish. Instead of educating the society and spreading information about sex, they are instead making a killing out of it. Their conspiracy of silence is also providing Indian patriarchal set-up a more conducive environment to retain the old mindsets.

Those involved in such activity scoff at the theory that they are not acting responsibly. Many feel this is a transitory phase and the day is not far when the claims of marrying a virgin, will be box-itemed in newspapers.

Now, if we link this news to Kushboo’s statement, then we can draw our own conclusions. What the actress did was to take a liberal stand on a subject that is normally kept under wraps. She spoke her mind about the changing value system that is taking place in our society. But, there are people who feel offended about such ideas and have raised the voice of protest against the actress. Can we not construe this as gagging of the freedom of speech and putting restrictions on airing personal views?

There is another angle to Kushboo’s episode. Her statement provided fodder to the cultural police in the country. Such people prey on this sort of things to occur and raise voice of protest to gain mileage and popularity. They are joined by those who are entrenched in the old value system and take this as a personal offence.

Unfortunately, such people find strong political backing and do every possible thing to stop liberal voices to gain an upper hand. It is hoped that with changing times people will learn to adopt themselves to hard realities and do not make fuss over such statements. 

This brings us to a larger question where parents are struggling to strike the right balance between being relaxed, being liberal and still others drawing a line on such issues. Again these are personal choices and can not be generalized. However, when one has to choose between light and darkness, black and white, true and false, right and wrong, the choices are limited. ---INFA  

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)